Welcome to Ohio, the Land of Trains

CSX train Q137-18 (Baltimore Penn Mary-Chicago 63rd St) is accelerating westward on track #1 past the EAS Warwick on the CSXT New Castle Subdivision in Clinton, Ohio at 6:35pm on August 18, 2000. CSX train S297-17 (Baltimore Curtice Bay-Toledo Walbridge) has taken the siding to let Q137 go around him. The siding is in the forground; Track #2 is in the background heading off to the right. This was once part of the Baltimore & Ohio's mainline from Pittsburgh to Chicago, which wasn't completed until late in the 19th Century. It remains a vital link between Chicago and the Mid-Atlantic states.

Photograph copyright 2000-2002 Jeff Knorek

Take a look at any map of the United States and you will see that the
state of Ohio is between all of the major port cities on the East Coast north of Tidewater
Virginia and the cities of Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit, as well as most of the port
cities on the West Coast. Only traffic to/from from Canada and Chicago through the state
of Michigan, and traffic to/from Los Angeles and the East Coast by way of Memphis can
avoid passing through the Buckeye State.

Map courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency

Long ago, in the 1820's, 30's, and 40's, the big port cites along the East Coast all
had designs on being the predominant port once the fertile land west of the
Appalachian Mountains was developed and farmed. The rich agriculture that this land would
ultimately sustain should be transloaded at eastern ports for export to Europe, the plan
went, so toward this end many of the port cities chartered the early railroads themselves
or politically supported those chartered by other private interests (the same method
similarly funded canal building).

Remember, at this period in American history there were only primitive roads to the
western states and territories (Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Indiana, and
Illinois). The Federal Highway System would not be developed until the Great Depression
during the NINETEEN Thirties. Transporting goods from farm or manufacturer to
market by wagon was slow and expensive. Canals were used in concert with navigable rivers
and the Great Lakes as a cheaper and easier alternative to roads for long distance bulk
transport on boats to and from the West (as well as within the territories and new
states), but it was still slow.

The business and industry of railroading was itself a new technology to the United
States, imported from England. It held the promise of being both cheaper than road
transport and faster than canal transport. The Eastern States were farming cereal grains,
but the land was not rich for farming, and domestic consumption did not leave much grain
left over for export to Europe. The West was growing more grain than its own population
could use, and the Eastern port cities wanted in on the action.

Unfortunately for them, a mountain range, the Appalachians, lay between this
abundant grain and the merchants who wanted to sell it overseas. The importance of canals
in the development of Ohio and other states cannot be overstated. However, the prevailing
transportation modes of the day were not suited to the task of hauling a large volume of
heavy goods up and over the mountains. This was the impetus behind the first railroad
construction in the United States, the B&O, which was chartered in 1825 (by
comparison, the Erie and Ohio Canal connecting the Ohio villages of Cleveland on Lake Erie
and Portsmouth on the Ohio River by 1832, was also chartered in 1825).

The Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central System (or their proxies and/or
acquisitions) would be major players in this Nineteenth Century push from the East Coast
to the Ohio River, Lake Erie, and beyond. The Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio,
Norfolk & Western, Erie, and other railroad companies and their proxies or
acquisitions would follow (each with a rich, interesting, and sometimes dramatic history).

Over the course of some fifty years the state of Ohio would be both a goal and then a
thoroughfare as the major eastern railroads reached Chicago and St. Louis. During this
time many regional railroads within the state were chartered as well. These companies
hauled the raw materials used in iron production from the mines to the mills, as well as
finished products and agricultural goods from the mills and farm bureaus to market. They
proved to be every bit as vital to the industries and communities that they served as
their larger brethren.

Railroad map of Ohio published by the State. 1890. Prepared by J. A. Norton,
commissioner of railroads & telegraphs. Copyright by H. B. Stranahan. Provided by the
Library of Congress.

By 1890 Ohio was a maze of railroads moving north and south, east and west.

Along the way west, immigrant and domestic migration from the east exploded, providing
a vast and hungry labor pool. With the benefits of this new overland transportation
technology married with those of water shipping to carry raw materials (as well as
recently emmigrated workers) to Ohio cities, many industrial manufacturing facilities soon
sprang up all along Lake Erie and in the region between Toledo Ohio and Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania, as well as the area around Cincinnati. By 1920, the factories that
manufactured Iron and Steel, Glass, Rubber, Automobiles, Locomotives, Tractors, Trucks,
Ships, Chemicals, Machine Tools, Foodstuffs, Household Products and Appliances all
combined to create one of the largest and most concentrated industrial zones on earth.

The coal needed to make iron and steel, as well as to generate the steam and
electricity for production, was (and still is) conveniently located just south and east of
the Ohio River in West Virginia and Kentucky, and to a lesser extent, in Ohio. The iron
ore smelted with this coal to make iron was mined in the Michigan's Upper Peninsula (and
now in Minnesota's Missabe Range), was (and still is) shipped by Lake Boat to Ohio ports
on Lake Erie and thence by railroad to the various mills in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Limestone needed to smelt the ore was quarried all over Ohio and Michigan. Everything
needed to forge a modern economy from material mined from the earth was no more than 600
miles away by ship or 300 miles away by rail, and in many instances was much closer than
that.

A pair of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Hulett Unloaders at the Cleveland docks shovel
iron ore out of a Great Lakes Freighter. The ore is then dumped into waiting hopper cars
and then delivered to an Ohio, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia steel mill. Photograph by
Jack Delano, May 1943. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,
FSA-OWI Collection, reproduction number LC-USW361-677 DLC

Ohio's location west of the Appalachians, sandwiched between the Great Lakes and the
Ohio River, lends itself to a large and vibrant industrial base. The realities of the
Global Economy have reduced the number of operating mills and factories in the region.
However, those that remain still need almost all of their raw materials brought to them by
train, not to mention many of their finished products delivered to market by train.

When you add this home grown traffic with the traffic flowing from those now mature
east coast ports to the still vital cities of St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, and to points
beyond, you'll understand why there are so many high density mainlines that bisect Ohio,
and why it is such a great place to watch trains.

With a limitless budget, a lot of time, and a good vehicle you can explore the
railroads of Ohio from end to end, and from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Most of us can't
do this, at least not all at once. Therefore we have to be somewhat more selective about
where to go in order to see a lot of trains, or to frame that once-in-a-lifetime
photograph.

Contained herein is a guide that can help steer you to that location. While we are at
it, we are providing an overview of contemporary railroad operations in Ohio, as well as a
general history of their development and evolution.

None of this happens in a vacuum under laboratory conditions, so we'll also be talking
about the role that Ohio railroads have played in the development (or the shared demise)
of other industries. In addition, we'll take a look at certain social issues that these
other industries have created (as in Appalachian coal mining areas and grundgy Steel
towns).

In some cases there will be no point in either reinventing the wheel or plagiarizing
someone else's work, so we'll just steer you to a good link. Pages within this website which
are authored by someone other than myself can be easily identified by the white
background, with credit given at the bottom of the page.

We like watching trains in Ohio. And we hope you do, too.

Table of Contents

If you'd like to contribute any photos or text, feel free to email me using
the link at the bottom of the page.